Alonzo Mourning

Mourning shattered Charlotte's blocked-shots records, becoming the Hornets' all-time career leader in the 49th game of the season.

Alonzo Harding Mourning Jr. (born February 8, 1970) is an American former professional basketball player who has served as vice president of player programs and development for the Miami Heat since June 2009.

Mourning played most of his 15-year National Basketball Association (NBA) career for the Heat.

Nicknamed "Zo", Mourning played the center position.

Following his college basketball career at Georgetown University, his tenacity on defense twice earned him the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award and twice placed him on the NBA All-Defensive Team.

Alonzo Harding Mourning Jr. was born on February 8, 1970, in Chesapeake, Virginia.

He attended Indian River High School, where he excelled in basketball.

He led the team to 51 straight victories and a state title his junior year (1987).

As a senior, he averaged 25 points, 15 rebounds and 12 blocked shots per game.

He was named Player of the Year by USA Today, Parade, Gatorade, and Naismith.

He was the #1 recruit of the 1988 class, over Christian Laettner, Shawn Kemp, Billy Owens, Kenny Williams, Stanley Roberts, Rick Fox, and Malik Sealy, among others.

Mourning played college basketball for John Thompson at Georgetown University.

He made an immediate impact as a freshman, starting all 34 games for the Hoyas, averaging 13.1 points and 7.3 rebounds per game.

But his most notable accomplishment was leading the nation in total blocked shots (169) and blocks per game (5.0); both figures led the nation and set NCAA records for a freshman at that time.

Mourning's scoring and rebounding improved over the next two seasons, but his shot-blocking declined significantly, as his taller teammate Dikembe Mutombo established himself as starting center for Georgetown, forcing Mourning to play at power forward.

He was also named Big East Defensive Player of the Year, which he had won twice previously (as a freshman in 1988–89, and again as a sophomore in 1989–90, sharing the award with Mutombo that season; Mutombo won the award alone in 1990–91).

Mourning finished his college career with 2,001 points and 1,032 rebounds, reaching the exclusive 2,000-point and 1,000-rebound milestone.

More impressively, he finished with 453 blocked shots in his college career, ranking first all-time in NCAA history at that time.

Interestingly, Mourning was never listed as the all-time leader in Georgetown history, as the school credits Patrick Ewing with 493 blocks during his college career, but blocked shots were not an official NCAA statistic at that time.

Mourning and O'Neal were the first NBA rookies since David Robinson in the 1989–90 season to average 20 or more points and 10-plus rebounds in their first seasons.

After Mutombo entered the NBA draft in 1991, Mourning re-took his place as starting center, and responded with a spectacular senior season in 1991–92.

He averaged 21.3 points, 10.7 rebounds, and 5.0 blocks per game that year, and collected numerous awards, including Consensus First-Team All-American and Big East Conference Player of the Year.

Mourning was selected second overall in the 1992 NBA draft by the Charlotte Hornets, behind Shaquille O'Neal and before Christian Laettner.

Mourning was named to the league's all-rookie team in 1993 after averaging 21.0 points, 10.3 rebounds, and 3.47 blocks.

He finished second to Shaquille O'Neal in rookie of the year voting.

He posted the highest scoring average of any rookie in Hornets history.

The greatest moment of Mourning's rookie season came on May 5, 1993, in Game 4 of a first-round playoff series against the Boston Celtics.

His 20-footer with .4 seconds left gave the Hornets a 104–103 victory in the game and a 3–1 victory in the series.

The Hornets lost in the second round to the New York Knicks in five games, with Mourning averaging 23.8 points, 9.9 rebounds and 3.4 blocks in nine playoff games.

The following year, Mourning played in just 60 games, posting almost similar averages of 21.5 points, 10.2 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game, but the Hornets missed the playoffs.

In the 1994–95 season, Mourning and teammate Larry Johnson led the Hornets to a 50-win season and reached the playoffs.

Mourning ranked first on the team in scoring (21.3 per game), rebounding (9.9 per game), blocked shots (2.92 per game), and field goal percentage (.519), and played in the 1995 NBA All-Star Game where he scored 10 points and grabbed 8 rebounds.

The Hornets lost in four games to the Chicago Bulls in the first round of the playoffs, despite Mourning averaging 22 points, 13.3 rebounds, and 3.3 blocks during the series.

On November 3, 1995, after Mourning rejected Charlotte's contract extension offer worth an average of $11.2 million for seven years and knowing they would not be able to re-sign him, the Hornets traded him, along with reserves Pete Myers and LeRon Ellis in exchange for Glen Rice, Matt Geiger, Khalid Reeves and a first-round pick in the 1996 NBA draft.

Mourning would immediately serve as the centerpiece of the Pat Riley-coached Heat, and in his first season in Miami he averaged 23.2 points, 10.4 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game as Miami made the playoffs before being swept in the first round by the 72-win Bulls.

Mourning made a comeback after undergoing a kidney transplant and later won the 2006 NBA championship with the Heat.

Mourning also played for the Charlotte Hornets and New Jersey Nets.

On March 30, 2009, Mourning became the first Miami Heat player to have his number retired.

In 2010, Mourning was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.

In August 2014, Mourning was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and in August 2019 he was inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame.